Noisy crowded places! Aaarrgghh!! !

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Anyone feel startled in noisy, crowded places?

The chattering and feet shuffling doesn't worry me because I just filter those sorts of noises out. But the noise of children shouting and toddlers screaming in those same high screechy voices - argh! Torture! I feel like joining them but I know that I can't because I fear being humiliated.
Last week sometime I was in a big clothes shop with my mum, and one of the workers on the till was sticking that big brown sellotape on boxes, and that quick, sharp noise of the sellotape being ripped off the roll is really annoying and kept on distracting me from my thoughts. And there was my mum, spotting lots of clothes she liked, and running off to the changing-room to try them on. If I didn't get this distracted to noise, I think I would cope better shopping. I know NTs get annoyed with the sound of kids yelling, but they can – sort of – endure it better than I can.
It's all the people aswell - they all stare at me as I pass, as though they have never seen another human before. Again, if it weren't for people staring at me all the time, I think I could be able to cope better in crowds too.

All the time.

There was live music playing as I was returning home today and a large crowd was gathered.

My first instinct is always to "get the bleep out of there!"

It's not that I don't like music. It's just that they often play it too loudly in concert-type settings and the massive swarm of people is a bit overwhelming to me.

Yes. I can't stand the sound of loud high-pitched noises either.

This is one of the reasons I can't stand restaurants! All that ambient noise gets inside my head, and I can't think, I can't speak, I can't write. It's like when the TV is on and people are talking right in the same room, I can't focus.

I hate crowded places. I'd rather be in a quiet neighborhood pub than a busy downtown club.

I do not mind music playing loudly in my ear via my MP3 player, what I dislike is:

1 The background noise including the sound of everyone talking at once, people walking, cars beeping, things banging, bumping, clanging, car engines etc. I don't mind some of these noises on their own (car engines) but not combined with everything else.

2 If its a sunny day and I don't have my sunglasses my light sensitivity will kick off

3 Everyone walking at me at once...trolleys coming at me, shopping bags, walking clothes everywhere...I say walking clothes because at those times I am not really thinking of the social side of things such as someone staring or what they might be thinking about me etc, I just see moving objects bombarding my eyes from all directions and it's just a bit too much. Although I will admit I do try not to do things like talk to myself whilst walking up the street lol. Other than that though...

The result is I just want to get out of there and go somewhere quiet and dim. I can use my MP3 to shut out background noise and often do, but on some days I seem less able to tolerate the other stuff than others so whereas some days I can just about put up with it for a short period of time on others I can't deal with it at all.

Yeah, go into bewildered panic over even mild (to NTs)instances of this. Say... buying toothpaste in K-Mart near my house which is almost always nearly empty./ Feel like a hunted animal or something the whole time. Lights are so bright, music is so loud, music keeps being interrupted by the manager yelling something overthe loudspeaker, occasionally another person will pass and I literally can't breathe I'm so startled and overwhelmed, so many aisles, so many things, horrible. Best case scenario!

Oh and for some reason I applied to work here the other day. Well, reason: cause it's my best chance at getting hired somewhere. But obviously the stress would be unbearable. 15 minutes there as a shopper is torture.

It is absolute TORTURE for me. My girlfriend doesn't understand but all the people and the noises makes me feel ill and disoriented, I get like motion sickness when it's too busy with lots of sound.

A certain level of noise is comforting, anything above it is hell. Pubs are the worst, the only volume people can speak at with beer in is over 100 decibels It's impossible to understand a word anyone is saying, yet they all seem to cope fine.

Strangely, I study very well in our food court at my college. I prefer it to my library.

This is why I bring my Ipod everywhere for emergencies

get a cheap mp3 if youm ust

I also don't care for loud and crowded places.

Crowds intimidate me unless we're all sort of partaking in the same activity (i.e. I used to love going to huge concerts and have been to countless ones because strengely, I loved being in the middle of the crowd). But if people are running around me in a hallway or a mall, I'm likely to get annoyed as there's a greater chance they will bump into me.

I love Waterloo station on a Saturday morning.

Covent Garden, too.